Peruvians, therefore, are now professedly Papists but they have not much religion of any kind.

Lima may be called the city of earthquakes. Six times the city has been almost destroyed. About

forty times in a year the earth rocks and groans. Immediately, though it be midnight, the people rush out of their houses, crying aloud, "Mercy." The priests cause the bells of the churches to toll every

SCRAPS FROM CEYLON.

ten minutes, and all the people hasten to prayers. But, after the rocking is over, both priests and people go on in their sins and their follies the same as before.

L. L. N.

SCRAPS FROM CEYLON.

BY MRS. FERGUSON, A RESIDENT LADY. THIS has been called "the Paradise of the East;" but, for my part, I think England a much nicer Paradise. The sun rises here at six in the morning, and sets at six in the evening, every day nearly all the year round; there being only a difference of half-anhour between the longest and the shortest day. It is always warm weather here, and people from Britain cannot walk out in the day time for fear the heat of the sun, which is so very great always, should kill them. People sometimes die from a sun-stroke, as it is called. There is no long dawn or twilight here. It is perfectly dark till a little before the sun rises, and gets dark in a few minutes after the sun sets. So we can only walk out a little, morning and evening; but people from England don't walk much in India or Ceylon; when they wish to visit each other, or to go on business, they go in some sort of carriage, or ride on horseback. There is no winter here. The trees are always green. Fresh leaves are out before withered ones fall. Some sorts of fruits are only in season once or twice a year; but others are always to be had. There is one kind, called plantain, which the same at all times of the year. And this seems a kind provision of God, for this fruit is good food

and much liked, both by grown people and childretz. The people live more on fruits and vegetables here than in England. Boiled rice, mixed with fish or vegetable-curry, is their chief food. Early in the morning they drink a little coffee, and eat a hopper, which is made of rice-flour mixed with a little toddy, and fried into little cakes like pancakes, with or without sugar. Toddy is a juice which drops out of the tops of the cocoa-trees when the flower is cut. A chatty, or earthern dish, is tied on to hold the juice. There are men who do nothing else but go up the trees for the toddy, and are called toddy-drawer They take a knife to cut the blossom-sheath, an the chatty tied round their waist. They go up every morning for the toddy, and let the chatty down with a rope; a man at the foot pours the juice into another dish, and then the empty chatty is drawn up, and tied again on the spathe. These poor men sometimes fall down, and are killed or injured seriously. The people here are not at all like those in England, in colour or dress. They are of all shades, from black to a light brown. A few may be seen with a white cloth wrapped round from the waist reaching to the ancles; some with a sort of jacket in addition; those without a jacket often have a coloured handkerchief thrown over the shoulder. But the greatest number of the people go about with nothing but a piece of dirty cloth rolled round their waists, and children just the same. No nice clean frocks and pinafores; only a dirty bit of rag about them. The children of Europeans are very pale, and seldom plump in the face. No rosy cheeks to be seen here. Poor little things! They cannot run and see their

NEW-YEAR'S LETTER TO THE CHILDREN.

11

young friends so easily as you can. It is only such as may happen to live near them that they can see often; and it is only in the mornings and evenings that they can play out of doors. Children have, therefore, fewer companions here. As we do not like to trust our children to native servants alone, we always have the children to eat at the same table with us, and play where we can see them. They are so constantly with us, that I think they become sooner like grown persons in their thoughts and conversation. Perhaps you think it must be very nice to ride out so frequently in carriages; but you enjoy yourselves much more running about on foot, than we do riding. While you feel strong and well, and seldom tired, children here often throw themselves on couches and on the floors, to rest their wearied little bodies. I often tell my Anna that English children would be astonished to see her lounging about on a couch, or with a pillow on the floor. She is a little girl of nine and a half years old, who goes to a school near at hand. She has to prepare her lessons in the morning at home. So, every morning when I go out of my room, I find her, either on a couch or in the verandah, on a mat lying with all her books around her, learning her lessons.

(To be continued in our next.)

NEW-YEAR'S LETTER TO THE CHILDREN. We wish you a happy New-year, dear children; we wish you a happy New-year. "Everybody wants to be happy, but how shall we? asked a little girl one New-year's day, turning up her bright eyes earnestly.

66

That is the question all the world over, "How shall we be happy?" We are born with a desire to be happy, as if God meant us to be. "But how?" impatiently asks the child. Yes, "how?" that is the question. I will tell you something which may throw light upon the subject.

After

A little girl awoke one New-year's morning, and she said, “I shall be happy, I shall be; I know I shall!” And she was so positive about it, that her cousins were quite curious to know why she was so sure. breakfast, a little box came, containing a pearl necklace for Rosa, from her rich grandpapa. The child had had a hint of it before, and this was the secret of her being so sure. Rosa fairly trembled with excite

ment.

It was all, "Oh, oh, oh! ” And how she capered, and how she laughed! She showed it to several of the school-girls; but whether they praised it as much as she expected, I do not know. She came back not looking very much pleased, neither was she very good humoured during the day. In the afternoon I found her sitting on the table before the looking. glass, twisting the necklace over her ears. Oh," she said, with a discontented sigh, "I don't think much of this, after all. I had rather had-I had rather hadsomething else." That was Rosa's experience. She had been excited, but not satisfied. And why not, do you suppose? Because that which begins and ends in self cannot make people really happy.

Now for another case, which was told me by a young lady, whose little servant-girl came to her one day, and said, "May be, you will let me go and pick some bar. berries." 66 Yes," answered her mistress, "you may go; but it is very hot, and the walk is long; and then, what are you meaning to do with them?" "I'm